As he prepares to formally begin political activities, after recently returning to Dubai from UK, Musharraf has started contacting the guarantors to get out of the NRO commitments, within Pakistan and abroad, paving the way for his return to Pakistan.
“The understanding between Pervez Musharraf and the PPP leadership on the promulgation of the NRO also entailed that after coming into power, the PPP will neither hold any sort of trial of Musharraf nor will his steps be criticised,” a source in the Musharraf-led All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) told The News.
According to the source, since the understanding was reached in the presence of international powers and since the current PPP leadership did not abide by it, Musharraf has appraised the international powers that were part of the understanding as guarantors about the situation.
He said that besides contacting such powers during his stay in Britain, Musharraf also held a lengthy meeting with the ruler of Abu Dhabi. He said that the former president also held a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to UAE Gao Yusheng in Dubai.
“In the meeting with Musharraf, the Chinese envoy said that his country highly values the improvement of the Pak-China relations during the rule of Musharraf,” the source said. “In all his meetings, the former president focused more on the economic issues, particularly economic reforms in Pakistan during his rule,” he added.
When contacted, the APML secretary information Fawad Chaudhry Advocate confirmed that Musharraf is now not bound to adhere to the understanding that he had reached with the PPP leadership before the promulgation of the NRO. “As that understanding is now not being adhered to by the PPP leadership, the former president will also break all promises of the past because the way he is being implicated in the Benazir Bhutto murder case is negation of all the commitments made at the time of promulgating the NRO,” he said.
Fawad Chaudhry said that the former president would formally start his address to gatherings in Pakistan through videoconferencing from Dubai from April 17. He said the first address would be delivered in Lahore on April 17. He said it is a green signal with regard to the comeback of Musharraf.
When contacted by The News, the PPP information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira said his party had not reached any understanding with Musharraf nor do they believe in it. He said that as far as the NRO was concerned, it was not specific to Benazir Bhutto or President Asif Ali Zardari rather it encompassed all political forces in the country and the PPP has already informed the nation in this regard.
“The real objective of the contacts with Pervez Musharraf at that time was the peaceful transfer of power in the country and all political parties benefited from that move,” Kaira said.
